1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and process for the extensive cultivation of shrimp, and more particularly, to such apparatus and process that are extensive, continuous and specific in the farming of shrimp.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several efforts have been made to cope with the ever increasing demand for shrimp in the United States and other parts of the World. In particular, one of such efforts has been documented by Curt D. Rose, Alva H. Harris and Burt Wilson in the enclosed report entitled Extensive Culture of Penaeid Shrimp in Louisiana Salt-mark Impoundments, published in Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 104(2), pp 296-307, 1975. In that experiment, two impoundments received shrimp through a 13-mm mesh so that only postlarval and juvenile shrimp had access to the impoundments. As reported in that study, the major problem in extensive shrimp farming has been the heavy predation on shrimp that cannot be removed from natural impoundments. The authors discuss the possibility of migration from the impoundment as a possibility and the other possibility, poisoning, would raise ethical questions (and possibly affect the shrimp as well). Another factor reported to contribute to the mortality of the shrimp is the low salinity (or lack of control over the salinity of the impoundment) that deleteriously affect the postlarvae and older shrimp. Also, the difficulty in undergoing the nutritional transition from hatchery to impoundment foods and the levels of illumination (ultraviolet radiation) may also affect the shrimp. All these problems are under control in the present invention where the culture is not only extensive but also continuous and specific on a particular breed of shrimp.
Other patents describing the closest subject matter provide for a number of more or less complicated features that fail to solve the problem in an efficient and economical way. None of these patents suggest the novel features of the present invention.